The Sound?

Every time I pick up my bass, I tweek the the controls on my amp just a little bit. I guess i'm subconsciously trying to find 'my sound'. I really boost my high mid's to get that growly, saber-toothed bass sound. But when I play my friend's Fender Jazz, I really have to take off some of the bass. And you'll notice when other people play your bass, they ruin all of your settings; Trying to get 'Their Sound'! So I guess everyone subconsciously knows what they want to sound like, but they never quite get their.

I have found that between the Bartolinis in my Hanewinckel Reactor, my SansAmp Bass Driver DI, and my SWR Workingman's 15, that the sound I like the most is with everything flat. I keep all the knobs at 12 o'clock.

It seems the most natural and it has all the punch and high-end I need. Although, when my amp is cranked up, I do have to lower the treble a little bit.

Does anybody else use 12 o'clock settings with their gear? I have heard from some experts that high-end basses and amps should sound great without any adjustments.

Although, the SansAmp does do a lot to conribute to the sound even with its controls set at high-noon.

I used to roll the tone knob of my stolen Washburn all the way clockwise (full treble). Now with my Carvin, which has independent high, low and mid controls, i roll low and treble controls all the way clockwise (full) and let the mids in the center position (flat). My pickup panpot is also in the center (both pickups full) and both coils of my bridge humbucker on. I just use one coil of this pickup when i want some sort of Jaco sound (neck pickup off). When i want some type of 70's slap sound (Rose Royce, for instance), i only use my neck pickup. For all cases the EQ settings are the same.

I've been moving toward using flat settings on my amp. On my SWR SM-900, I have all 12 bands of EQ set at 12 noon. I do use a little bit of the amp's "bass" and "treble" controls (both between 1 and 2 o'clock), and I have the Aural Enhancer at 2 o'clock. That's just for cutting through the band. I'm going to try setting everything flat and boosting the gain a little. I want to get a sound that sounds like me playing, but louder.